GREAT BREAKFAST

 We left Eugene early and headed north on I-5.  After googling for a good breakfast place, we stopped in Salem.  We were a little early, so we stopped at the capitol building first.  They are doing some remodeling or something there.  We walked around the building, stopping to admire some nice Sequoia trees in the gardens. 

We like stopping to visit capitols in the states we visit.  It's odd that we've never been inside Oregon's capitol - someday, I guess, but not today - they weren't open yet.

Then we drove to the 'Word of Mouth Bistro'.  Yelp said they opened at 7am, but when we got there at 7, it was filling up quickly. (Their website says they actually open at 6:45am, ah ha).   Its a great place for breakfast.  They made everything from scratch, including the breads and jam.  They even have a homemade GF bread, which we had and enjoyed. The restaurant is in an old house and full of kitschy stuff, most including little dogs.  There were dog portraits everywhere.  I managed to sketch a few.

We left, heading north through Portland and stopping in Vancouver Washington at Fort Vancouver National Historic Site.  We went for a nice walk through the park and out onto the street, went under the I-5 bridge over the Columbia River (loud). Then back along the streets back into the park, which was now open.  I got my NPS Passport stamps and stickers.  Then we walked over to the actual fort.  There are people there portraying carpenters, metal smiths, and fur traders, in garb of the era.  It was fun.

And then it was straight through to home, another 3 hour drive, 165 miles.

Nice trip, if a little bit of a whirlwind.

LAVA BEDS NATIONAL MONUMENT

 At the last minute, we made a decision to head east and visit the Lava Beds National Monument.  I'll have to admit I didn't know anything about this park previously.  But, Darrell did a little research and was intriqued.  So, off we went this morning. It was about a 3 hour drive, 150 miles winding through the hills and forests.

There had been a fire through here 2 years and 3 years ago.  There were definite signs of that.  But, the park is beautiful in an austere way.  The focus is on the lava caves and the site of the Modoc War. 

I was not at all interested in going into the caves.  But, there were some beautiful openings going down into them.  I did go into the ones with hand-rails and steps.  There are beautiful and colorful in their own way.

Darrell was a bit more adventurous.

A Mountain Bluebird

A wonderful park - go see it for yourself!

We drove through the park and left on the north side and headed into Oregon.  We stopped in Klamath Falls Oregon for lunch.  We lucked into another great Thai restaurant, Thai Orchid Cafe. I sketched another of our meals and I couldn't resist including the knitted 'snake' that was living in the tree in front of the cafe.

We left there, with me driving, and headed into Eugene Oregon for the night.

HEADING NORTH

 We spent the night in Pasadena at the Pasadena Rose & Crown hotel.

We got up and left early and headed north out of town, going home.

We drove almost non-stop on Hwy 99 to just south of Sacramento for a much needed walk in The Consumnes River Preserve.

There have been some very nice improvements since last we've been here.  The trails are well marked, some are paved but most are just natural.  There are hundreds and hundreds of birds to see and hear.  It was so relaxing and enjoyable.  It's another of our favorite places.

The next stop was in West Sacramento.  Darrell wanted to stop in and meet his Felder dealer, Fergus.  They've talked on the phone for years, but never met in person.  

While they were talking and looking at the machinery, I sketched.

This is a semi-blind contour drawing with a bit of watercolor added (and a photo added later).

We left Fergus and headed north on I-5 to Redding, where we spent the night.  We bought some dinner at Sprouts Grocery.  

THE GAMBLE HOUSE

 Here we are at the Gamble House in Pasadena California.  The whole purpose of the trip.  

My friend, Ethylene, was able to drive up from her home to meet us there and we all went on the tour.  It was great fun to see her.  And, of course, it was fun to see the house again.

But, before that, we made a stop at the Blacker House, the biggest of the Greene & Greene ultimate bungalows.

WILL ROGERS STATE PARK

 First thing this morning we left Santa Clarita and headed to Will Rogers State Park for our morning walk in the Santa Monica Mountains.

Of course, as our luck would have it, the house tour at the park was not open on Monday, Tuesday or Wednesday.  But, there are great trails to walk, which was obvious, by all the locals that were taking their morning walks here, too.

We walked up a trail called 'Inspiration Point' which wound around up to a lookout point where we could see the surrounding area and out to the ocean.  There were lots of wild flowers, shrubs and birds.  The weather was perfect, but cloudy with marine air.  I like it.

I was fascinated by these beautifully symmetrical flowers? weeds? seeds?

When we got back to the pickup, we notice something hanging down underneath.  It was some kind of shroud.  Darrell was able to get underneath and unscrew the last screw holding in place, it was hand tight.  We called the local Chevrolet dealer and headed to Van Nuys.  We had 10:30 tickets for The Getty, but, we were not going to be able to make it there unfortunately. 

 The Van Nuys dealer wouldn't honor the work done at our Chev dealer and wanted $80 or something to put the other screws back in place.  They said there were no other problems and we could leave it off until we get home.  Which we did and went on our way.  Next stop Pasadena.

SEQUOIA NATIONAL PARK

 We left Newark very early for the 4+hour drive, 250 miles) to Sequoia National Park.  Darrell really wanted to see General Sherman, the biggest tree in the world, a giant Sequoia in the park.  We arrived a little after 9am.

What we didn't realize was that there has been a lot of flooding in the park and roads washed out.  So, the roads are blocked about 5 miles in.  We would see no Sequoias today.  We stopped at the Visitor Center for a bit.  I got my NPS Passport stamped, then Darrell walked down to the river to see the rushing waters while I stayed and sketched the Visitors Center.

We did drive in as far as we could.  Considering it isn't really open, there were a lot of people there (it is Memorial Day afterall).  We stopped along the way to see a few of the sights.

Tunnel Rock - the road used to go thru here.  See Darrell up on top?

At Hospital Rock, you could climb up to see native symbols painted on this rock.

A little disappointed, we left the park, but are putting it high on our list of places to re-visit.  We headed south to Santa Clarita, where we will the night, another 3 hours and 175 miles of driving.  

INTO SAN FRANCISCO

 We spent the night in Santa Rosa, got up early and headed into San Francisco.  Of course, it was foggy on the bay.

We stopped in Golden Gate Park for a walk.  We went straight to Stowe Lake and walked up to the top of the hill on the lake's island.  We've done this almost every time we've visited.

Then we looked on Yelp for a good breakfast place and headed there.  When we got to where it sent us, it wasn't what we were expecting, but down the street a few doors was a very nice little place.  The menu outside looked very promising.  So, we lucked into another great place.  They make their own breads, including English Muffin (my fav).  So, I indulged in one with homemade pear jam along with my yummy scramble.  It is LaLe at 731 Irving Street.  If in town, check it out!

After breakfast, we stopped at Haight & Ashbury.

Next stop was the Palace of Fine Arts. 

Then it was on to another National Park site, Fort Point, which is located under the Golden Gate Bridge.  It's a very interesting place.  There was a Spanish Castillo built on this site in 1794.  Americans took it in 1846 and started building the current structure in 1853.  It housed many cannons to protect the opening of SF Bay.  

Looking out thru a cannon porthole.

We headed out of San Francisco, across the bay to Fremont, where Darrell met up with one of his buddies.  We visited with them for a while, getting a tour of his woodshop and garden.

We spent the night in Newark.

LUNCH IN EUREKA

 We left behind the Redwoods and stopped in Eureka for lunch.  From Crescent City to Eureka is about 85 miles, about 1 hour 45 minutes driving.

We found another great place for lunch, The Greene Lily (516 2nd St, Eureka, CA 95501).  They serve breakfast all day.  It was very crowded by the time we got there.  We waited a few minutes for someone to finish and leave before we were seated.  The food was great.

When we walked out of the restaurant we walked by a quilt/yarn store with a big MOVING SALE sign in the window.  I couldn't resist but to go  inside and see what treasure might be left.  There really wasn't much to pick from, but I did find a few $8 a yard pieces and one really cool fabric that was $22 a yard that I got a half yard of.  It's Eureka Fabrics.  You can go to their website and get 50% off what's left, for a while.